


The Swan in the Curse

by umisabaku



Series: Kuroko no Fairy Tale [5]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Retellings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 14:45:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12534064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/umisabaku/pseuds/umisabaku
Summary: "There are things about demons that never make it to the stories. Like the fact that there are demons who are good and kind and try to help when they can; these demons do not have the strange colored hair and eyes of that other more vengeful kind—they look like ordinary people and they love as ordinary people do.Kasamatsu Yukio is one such good kind of demon.Kise Ryouta is the other kind."--Retelling of "The Six Swans"





	The Swan in the Curse

There are things about demons that never make it to the stories. Like the fact that there are demons who are good and kind and try to help when they can; these demons do not have the strange colored hair and eyes of that other more vengeful kind—they look like ordinary people and they love as ordinary people do.

Kasamatsu Yukio is one such good kind of demon.

Kise Ryouta is the other kind.

*

They should never have met, not ordinarily. For as everyone knows, the other kind of demon is stronger and more powerful and often without mercy. The eudemons keep their heads down and try not to draw the attention of their more powerful brethren, for those demons have no kindness in their hearts and are quick to rage.

And demons, by their nature, are territorial. They keep to their forests and rarely venture out unless it is to create some mischief on the nearby human villages. Kasamatsu keeps to his woods near the sea and does not expect any trouble. He and his brothers make up a small clan and if they do venture out it is to help and to guide any lost human who might need aid.

When Kise Ryouta comes to their woods he is like a hurricane; sudden and forceful and a harbinger for terrible things.

*

He says, “This place looks nice, I think I will make it my own. All of you must leave now, or I will destroy you.”

And Kasamatsu’s brothers all look at each other, cowed and nervous and ready to flee, because if this yellow-haired, yellow-eyed demon is giving them the chance to go, then they should go and pray he does not change his mind.

In the span of three seconds, Kasamatsu makes a decision. It is reckless and dangerous but he does not regret it. With a flying leap he kicks the yellow-haired demon in the back, knocking him to the ground, and says, “Show some respect.”

*

“Respect?” the yellow-haired demon repeats incredulous from his position on the ground. The blow is not wounding; Kasamatsu is sure that he could not have actually injured the other demon. If the yellow demon remains on the ground it is only because he is too surprised to move. “In what way are you worthy of my respect? I am stronger than you a thousand times over; I could kill all six of you without ever breaking a sweat. I am stronger and better and more noble than you in every way imaginable, who are you to demand respect from me?”

“I am Kasamatsu Yukio,” the eudemon declares, “And this is my land, and this is the land of my brothers before me. We have lived here and built a home here and served the land. If you wish to claim this place as your home then you must give us the respect we are owed for caring for this land so much longer than you.”

He will battle; he will lose, but he will battle all the same. Because this is his home, and no one will chase him from his home.

Something unreadable flashes in the yellow demon’s eyes. “Brothers? You have no brothers. Demons do not have families.”

“We are tied not by blood but by the land and the sea that we share,” Kasamatsu insists stubbornly. “These are my brothers. If you wish to live here, then I will call you brother, but you will respect me and you will respect our home.”

Demons are territorial, and they do often live in clans, and if this yellow-eyed demon does not have a forest of his own or others he calls comrades, then it is because something terrible must have happened. If he is looking for a new place, it is because he lost his own.

Kasamatsu is not sure why the demon changed his mind; perhaps it was only a whim. But the yellow-haired demon says, “Alright, Brother. I will obey your rules for now and live in your land. I am Kise Ryouta.”

He says the name like he expects Kasamatsu to recognize it, and Kasamatsu does. He is one of the most powerful demons in all the lands, and Kasamatsu has just kicked him to the ground.

But he refuses to be impressed.

“Stay then, but behave. I can’t stand undisciplined brats.”

*

“It will not work,” Moriyama tells him. “You can’t turn a Beast into a eudemon. He will slaughter us all once he grows bored.”

“Perhaps,” Kasamatsu says thoughtfully, and he looks at the yellow demon in their midst with a speculative glance. “But I think there is a lot of potential there.”

“Potential for what?” Moriyama says, exasperated. They have known each other the longest; they came to these woods by the sea at the same time, they trained under the same brothers, and there is a lot of trust. “Potential destruction, absolutely. Potential chaos, potential doom, potential—”

“Potential,” Kasamatsu repeats. “To be family. He has lived with others before and he has lost them. I think he wants to live with a group again, but doesn’t know how. I think he could be the best of us, if only he had the chance.”

Moriyama thinks on this for a good long while and then says, “So what you’re saying is, when he kills us all, we can blame this entirely on you.”

“Yes, fine, I’ll take the responsibility,” Kasamatsu says, rolling his eyes.

*

He is not quite as relaxed about the subject as he pretends to be around his other brothers. Kasamatsu is keenly aware that Kise is very dangerous, and that he has invited this danger into their home, but he wants to believe that behind Kise’s dangerous smile is someone who, at heart, doesn’t want to be alone anymore.

So he invites Kise into their home, to share their food, to sleep in their palace. He invites Kise to travel the forest with him; to harvest their crops and to plant more seeds and to help others when they can.

Kise does all of this with a mocking sort of smile—like this is all just some sort of game to him. And Kasamatsu knows even as Kise laughs and jokes with the others that this could all go terribly wrong (and it will be his fault, the burden will be on him).

*

They chase away bandits from this forest because this is their home, and the people in it are under their protection, and it is on one such occasion that Kasamatsu sees the glimmer of what Kise is. The Beast attacks with lightning like fury, blazing so brightly Kasamatsu almost has to avert his eyes, and the bandit he has in his hands is like clay to be ripped apart and remolded at his whim.

“Stop,” Kasamatsu says, catching Kise’s hand, barely believing that he dares to do so. “This is not what we do.”

“I am protecting the village, brother,” Kise says, his voice so cold it burns, “Isn’t that what you told me we do?”

“We protect, but we do not kill,” Kasamatsu says. “Release him.”

“Then he will come back another day!” Kise says, his frustration evident and finally making him a little more recognizable and not so Beast-like. “If we do not destroy him now, we only invite danger upon ourselves later!”

“Then we will address it later,” Kasamatsu says, keeping his voice flat. “But we do not shed blood.”

Kise releases the man (who frantically runs away) and turns on Kasamatsu, who stands his ground. “We are stronger than them, and we should crush them.”

“The strong do not need to crush anyone,” Kasamatsu returns easily, “That’s what it means to have strength.”

The situation is very tense, and idly, Kasamatsu wonders if this is how Kise will finally kill him, kill them all. But then the yellow demon slumps and sighs.

“I do not understand you, brother,” Kise says, and he walks back to their home by the sea. Kasamatsu lets out a breath and takes a minute to compose himself before doing the same.

*

Bonds are not something that can be created overnight. Friendship, brotherhood, camaraderie— they can’t just happen because you will it so. But Kasamatsu lives on the principle that if you treat someone like a friend, then they will be a friend.

The first time he hears Kise laugh a genuine laugh it’s because of something Moriyama said. Kise’s laughter is a surprised sort of sound; it also shocks both Moriyama and Kise alike.

And later, Hayakawa says, “Let’s go down to the village and see if any bad guy needs to be beat up!” only it doesn’t sound like that, not when Hayakawa says it, who often leaves out whole syllables in his enthusiasm for speaking. Kasamatsu is about to interpret but Kise answers, “We just beat up bad guys yesterday, I doubt they’ll be back so soon.”

Nakamura says, “You understood him?”

And Kise just says, “You get the gist of it, after awhile.”

Then when they share their meals together, Kise doesn’t insist on going first anymore. He even splits his bread with Kobori, almost subconsciously, and doesn’t seem to think twice about the fact that only a few months before he was insisting the best should have the bigger portions.

All things considered, Kasamatsu feels like maybe bonds are not forged overnight, but they can be forged, even with Beasts.

*

“How are you doing?” Kasamatsu asks one night, when the others have gone to sleep but Kise stays up to stare at the moon.

“I’m fine, brother, you don’t need to worry about me,” Kise says, smiling that fake smile of his.

“You don’t need to be like that,” Kasamatsu says gruffly, bumping Kise slightly in gentle chastise. “You don’t have to pretend.”

Kise’s smile falls, but then it’s replaced by a softer, more genuine smile. “Nothing gets passed you, does it? That’s why you’re the leader.”

“I want you to be happy, Kise.”

“Happy,” Kise says, and his voice is kind of wistful and also kind of self-deprecating. “What a strange concept. Do you think everyone deserves to be happy?”

A dangerous question, Kasamatsu thinks.

“I think,” he starts slowly, carefully, “that you deserve to be happy.”

And Kise looks at him, surprised, his mouth open a little before he has to look away, as if staring at Kasamatsu hurts his eyes.

“I’m not sure you would still mean that, if you knew what I wanted to be happy,” Kise says, still not looking at Kasamatsu.

“Why don’t you tell me, and we’ll find out?” Kasamatsu asks, his heart beating faster and he’s not entirely sure why.

“Later,” Kise says. “I’ll tell you later.” He laughs, and it’s a pathetic sort of sound that hurts. “I’m feeling like too much of a coward to tell you tonight.”

Kasamatsu doesn’t press the issue after that, even though he has a hard time picturing Kise as scared of anything. After a while, he thinks it must be true for him as well: he was feeling too much of a coward to make Kise tell him what would make him happy.

*

Kasamatsu regrets this, later. He regrets not pressing Kise for details then. He regrets his own cowardice.

Because later, the gray Beast comes into their home, and everything changes.

*

They are guardians of this land, and Kasamatsu has always prided himself on knowing when there are disruptions. It is an ordinary day when he senses the violence; he is far from his clan but he doesn’t hesitate. He runs towards the direction of the disturbance, ready to fight, to protect—

Kise is already there. Kasamatsu abruptly halts, because Kise is not alone.

There is a gray Beast; another one of Kise’s kind. It only takes a few seconds to figure out the scene in front of Kasamatsu. There was a traveling family, obviously attacked by this new Beast, and Kise must have stopped him. The two Beasts are growling at each other and anger practically radiates off of them. Kasamatsu remains where he is, hidden from view, because there is no point in intervening, not yet. If the Beast attacks again, then Kasamatsu will reveal himself. There is no point in giving up the element of surprise just yet.

“Haizaki,” Kise sneers, practically spitting out the name. “Leave this place, or I will kill you.”

“Ryouta, is that any way to treat an old friend?”

Kise doesn’t respond, but everything about him screams the fact that he does not view this man as any kind of friend.

“What happened to the old gang, anyway? Did you all go your separate ways? Even after you drove me off?”

“And I’ll drive you off again,” Kise says.

“Don’t be stupid, Ryouta. You never could beat me.”

Kasamatsu swallows. Kise is the strongest person he has ever met; he cannot imagine a demon stronger than Kise.

The seconds stretch on for eternity; Kasamatsu poised to attack the entire time. The gray demon—Haizaki—says something Kasamatsu can’t hear and then he turns and walks away.

Staring at Kise’s back is a frightening thing—Kise who stands there, his fury a visible thing, looking for all the world like a bloodthirsty Beast.

*

“Who was he?” Kasamatsu says, stepping out. It would be too cowardly to remain hidden, to let Kise think he had been alone.

“Brother,” Kise startles. His anger abruptly fades, leaving him looking somewhat abashed, and then he smiles and laughs a forced sound and says, “He was no one. Just someone from the past. He won’t come back here.”

“Kise,” Kasamatsu warns, because what if that Beast did come back? He could kill their entire clan.

“I won’t let him hurt you,” Kise says. Then, for some reason, he flushes, looks down, and then says, “Any of you, I mean. I won’t let him hurt this clan. We’re all brothers, right? Not by blood, but by the land.”

“Yeah, Kise. We’re brothers,” Kasamatsu says softly. But something still nags at him— something looms like a dark cloud, and Kasamatsu isn’t sure what to do with all this dread.

*

At first it seems like he has nothing to worry about. Despite the nameless anxiety, their days pass just as they had before.

But then the day comes when Kasamatsu returns to their palace by the sea, only to find it completely empty.

His brothers are nowhere to be found.

*

There are not enough words to describe emptiness. Kasamatsu stands in his home and thinks there should be more words in the dictionary to describe the profound sense of loss. There should be a word—something unique and deep—that would properly capture how incredibly empty a home can be when you expect to find your family and no one is there.

Kasamatsu has tried very hard not to panic. He searched through the woods, he searched by the sea, he’s searched the village—he has spent hours traveling through every possible place his brothers might be desperate to find some trace of them.

It is not just that he can’t find them. It’s that he can’t find proof that they even went somewhere. He can’t find any evidence of what might have happened. It’s like they were all here one day, and then gone.

If Kasamatsu didn’t know any better, he might wonder if they ever existed.

*

He’s trying not to panic, but he has no idea what the right course of action should be. He doesn’t know if should try to search the earth, trying to find some hint of his family in some far distant land. Or if he should stay here, and hope that they will find a way back to him somehow.

Be smart, he yells at himself. He’s not the strongest or the best, but he can at least try to be smart and keep it together. There’s no point in wandering around aimlessly.

Stay here, until there’s some sort of lead, some sort of plan, something that he can do.

Desperation is another word that doesn’t properly convey the depths of what he’s feeling. He feels betrayed by words.

*

The days pass with too much self-loathing.

He can’t help but wonder if this happened because of Kise, the Beast Kasamatsu invited into his home. But Kise is gone; gone just like the rest of his brothers—surely whatever happened to his clan happened to Kise as well. And it hurts him to blame Kise; he hates himself a little just for having the thought.

But just as naturally as it was to wonder if this is because of Kise, he immediately wonders if this is because of the Gray Beast. If whatever villainy took place in his home is because of that demon that looked so eager for bloodshed.

And ultimately, after Kise, after Haizaki, the only thing Kasamatsu can think about it is that surely, this must be because of him.

Surely he did something wrong.

His brothers are gone and it is his fault.

*

“Take me,” he says one day. He’s all alone, there’s no one to hear him, and he is most likely on the verge of madness. But louder, he says, “Take me instead. Give me back my family and take me instead.”

The silence just makes him angrier. Like it’s mocking him.

“Give me my family back! I’ll do anything!” he shouts it this time, and for a second it almost feels like maybe he’ll get a response.

But he really is just losing his mind.

*

At night he wakes up and the sky is full of swans.

*

He thinks he must be dreaming. The swans are perched in the trees all around him, looking down at him, with the stars behind their backs like they’re haloed by the heavens. Kasamatsu thinks it must be a dream, because he feels at first that he must be surrounded by angels, and it is an impossibly beautiful thing to feel in this moment in his life when he feels so hollow and bereft.

But as soon as he realizes he isn’t dreaming, he realizes that they are even better than angels—they must be his brothers, his brothers have returned, because against all odds he looks at these swans and he sees his family.

“Kise,” he says to the closest, largest and most regal of the swans. “Moriyama, Kobori—everyone!”

It does not even disturb him all that much that his brothers have returned to him in the form of swans. At least they are back. Nothing else matters.

The moon hangs low; and when a passing cloud moves, the Kise-swan bows his head, and then one by one, his brothers return to him in the form that he knows and loves best. Kasamatsu has to keep himself from crying—he’s too scared to touch them, he’s terrified this is all a dream; it must be a dream, this is all too good to be true.

But Kise’s face stills some of his joy. Kise and all his other brothers look at him with such solemnity that Kasamatsu begins to think this must be reality after all—they look far too devastated.

“Captain,” Kise says, his voice full of sorrow, “Brother—I am sorry. I am so sorry. You should have never invited me into your home.”

*

His brothers reach out to him, touching him as if they need to believe that he is there. Their hands are all so cold, and their touch doesn’t seem real—there is something wrong with them; even though their touch is solid it feels like they are ghosts.

Only Kise does not touch him.

“What happened?” Kasamatsu asks, looking at the faces of the people he has known almost all his life. “Who has done this to you?” Now that the initial joy has passed he can sense the curse that has been placed upon them; it is powerful magic, unlike anything he has ever felt before. No simple eudemon could have placed a curse like this; it must have been a powerful, vengeful Beast.

“We do not have much time,” Moriyama says. “Only fifteen minutes each night there is a moon. Then we return to swans.”

“Forget us, captain. You must live your life as your own. There is no helping us,” Kobori says.

“Never,” Kasamatsu cries. “Something must be done, there is always something that can be done. Who did this to you?” He looks to Kise, who has not spoken since his earlier statement, You should have never invited me into your home. “Was it the Gray Beast?”

Kise just shakes his head mournfully. “No, but it was my past. It was my past that did this, and my bonds to this clan that hurt the others. It is all my fault. Please, live your life, find a new clan, it is not worth trying to save us.”

Kasamatsu’s heart beats faster at the statement, and all he feels is hope. “That means there is something I can do. What is it?”

The others look at each other, they look at Kise, but they remain silent.

“It is not for you to bear the burden!” Kasamatsu shouts, barely restraining himself from kicking Kise. “It is not for you to suffer this loss. I am the leader of this clan, you were under my protection. The burden is mine and mine alone. Now tell me what I must do to save you.”

And after a single moment of slight hesitation, Kise tells him.

*

You must weave six shirts from star nettles. And in this entire time you must never speak a word. If you speak a single word, the enchantment will not work.

At first, Kasamatsu assumes the task will be easy. He figures the hardest part will be learning how to weave—which, all things considered, is not a standard skill most demons possess. But to find the star nettles, first he must travel. And after he finds them, he begins to realize the true difficulty behind this task.

For one thing, star nettles grow only in very small patches. The lone patch he finds is not enough to make a single sleeve on one shirt, much less six whole shirts.

For another thing—and perhaps he should have realized this with the name “nettle”—the thorns actually hurt a whole lot. Just picking the star nettles leaves his hands in bleeding tatters; the delicate task of spinning the nettles into thread is no less painful, and the actual weaving itself nearly cuts to the bone.

He loses a whole day of work after his first attempt, because his hands are shaking too much he can’t get them to cooperate, no matter how hard he tries.

This is for his brothers. His clan, his family. So as soon as his hands recover, he begins again.

*

His swan-brothers follow him on his journey, but they always disappear in the day time. Scouting for the next star nettle bush, Kasamatsu realizes eventually. They’re trying to help him in the only way they can.

It is sometimes too much to see them. They watch him with such sorrow in their eyes, like they’re begging him to stop. They do not want to see him in pain.

He shakes his head at them, wishing he could explain. Don’t look at me like that. I chose this. This is nothing. If it will save you, this is nothing.

They don’t always come to him at night either. The fifteen minutes they have in their human form is never enough and besides, it presents a different kind of danger.

*

The silence is not something he expects to be a problem either, not at first. After all, without his brothers, who is there for him to talk to? But there are things he doesn’t take into consideration. There are a million small near-misses he has to train himself out of doing: the automatic exclamation when cut by the star nettles, the habit he had formed of talking to himself in those days when he didn’t know where his brothers were, the instinctive need to greet someone when greeted on the road.

For that reason, he stays away from villages when he can. Eudemons pass as human, for the most part, and are sometimes even welcomed as good fortune when they are recognized for what they are. But without being able to communicate that he means no one any harm, he learns quickly it is best to avoid people. His hands are often cut or swollen from the pain, and after days and weeks on the road, his appearance can be frightful.

*

The absolute worst part of this whole trial is how little progress he makes. After a year has passed he finally finishes the first shirt and he wants to weep and how long it has taken him to reach this stage.

But he can’t show any discouragement. His brothers are still watching over him, somewhere. He does not want them to see his dismay.

This is something he can do. This is something he will do. If it is to save his brothers, he would suffer so much worse than this.

So he teaches himself patience. Calluses form on his hands, and weaving becomes a simpler task. He travels far and wide to find the nettles and he does it all over again each time.

It is a doable task—difficult, but not impossible.

*

But then the Gray Beast enters his life again.

*

In Kasamatsu’s experience, it is never a good thing to be outnumbered and surrounded.

So it is very distressing when he wakes up one morning to find himself in such a situation.

By now, he has fully conditioned himself not to cry out unexpectedly when surprised. Where his initial reaction would have been at one point to start shouting, he remains calm and only stares at the men on their horses who have now surrounded the tree where he found rest for the evening. The only reaction he has to being so surprised is to instinctively grab for his pouch where he keeps his star nettle supplies and his precious finished shirts.

“It is some dangerous creature, do you think, your Majesty?”

The address to a king is one makes Kasamatsu focus on the man in the middle, and he jolts in recognition at the sight of the Gray Beast.

He does not look as Kasamatsu remembers him. His hair and eyes are no longer gray, but brown like an ordinary human. His hair is fashioned in the corn rows of human royalty and at first Kasamatsu wonders if perhaps he is mistaken. But the Gray Beast’s eyes narrow when Kasamatsu twitches in recognition, and there is still a distinctly Beast-like scent about him.

It must be the same man. And for whatever reason, he is passing as a human. A strange thing indeed, since most humans cannot see Beasts at all.

A human king, no less.

Even though Kise had said, no, it was my past but not the Gray Beast, Kasamatsu is on guard anyway. This man was no friend to Kise and is clearly dangerous. Part of Kasamatsu even wonders if perhaps he was responsible for the curse on his brothers after all. He can’t help but think the reappearance of this Beast in Kise’s life and the subsequent curse must be related somehow.

“Perhaps,” the Gray Beast says, smiling cruelly as he looks at Kasamatsu. Kasamatsu is fairly certain the Beast has no way of knowing that Kasamatsu is connected to Kise, but he must surely realize what Kasamatsu is. “He has such a wild look about him. Perhaps it is best if we kill him.”

Kasamatsu is poised to flee—he could not fight so many men and a Beast at the same time. He is not even sure if he could run from so many of them, not when they are on horseback, but he is prepared to try. (He refuses to die. His brothers are counting on him. If he does not live, there will be no one to save them, and he must save them.)

“Your majesty, look at his eyes, his clothes,” a different man says. “He must be a eudemon. Those are very blessed forest creatures. It would be an ill-omen to kill such a one as he. Eudemons bring great fortune to all they are near.”

“Is that right?” the Gray Beast says, not taking his eyes off from Kasamatsu for a second. There is something very calculated about his expression that fills Kasamatsu with an intense dread. He smiles again.

“If that is true, then surely I must marry such a creature, so that my entire kingdom might be blessed.”

Kasamatsu barely has time to process such a statement, before the men bring him down from his tree and place him on top of a horse. He has only enough wits to ensure he does not lose his parcel; gripping the bag tightly, he is brought back to the Gray Beast’s palace.

 

*

“I know what you are,” the Gray Beast says when they are alone. “You are one of the eudemon that Ryouta lives with now. I can smell him all over you.”

It is a strange thing to say because Kasamatsu can’t see how that could possibly be true. Kasamatsu has not seen Kise in… far too long. And surely, the fifteen minutes a night when he does see Kise is not enough for his scent to be on his skin.

“Why haven’t you talked?” Haizaki asks. “You haven’t made a single sound since we found you.”

Kasamatsu can only stare at the man. His whole body still hums, ready for action, ready to fight or to flee at a moment’s notice.

“There is magic about you,” Haizaki says, conversationally. “I can smell that, too. Not enchantment, you’re not under a spell. That must mean that you are the one enchanting.” Haizaki continues to look at him, with intrigued and hungry gleam that Kasamatsu doesn’t like at all.

“Eudemons do not have the same kind of power as Beasts,” Haizaki says out of nowhere, and Kasamatsu doesn’t like the fact that the man is so willing to carry-on a one-sided conversation. “But there is power to them. People love them, and there’s magic there, too. Just think how much power there could be if they hated you.”

He leaves Kasamatsu locked in a palace room, after that. And Kasamatsu has the distinct feeling that he is in a lot of trouble.

*

“Brother, brother.”

He wakes to the sound of his brothers’ cries, he wakes to find himself in Kise’s arms.

“We have heard everything, brother,” Moriyama says. Kasamatsu looks at him over Kise’s shoulder, who is holding him so tightly as he weeps into Kasamatsu’s shoulder that Kasamatsu can’t fully breathe. He doesn’t want to pull away, though. He finds that he likes being in Kise’s hold. “Kise has told us what the King used to be. The rumor about the village is that the king plans to marry you.”

“Run, Kasamatsu,” Kobori urges. “We will help you escape.”

Kasamatsu looks pointedly at the window in his room—it is small enough for swans to slip through, but not large enough for a man.

“Not now,” Kobori amends, “But we will find a way.”

“You can’t marry him,” Hayakawa says, in his standard garbled fashion. “Surely, he must plan to kill you.”

What the King used to be. That’s what Moriyama said. And only now does it occur to Kasamatsu that perhaps the Gray Beast is not disguised as a human—perhaps he is human.

All of the sudden, Kasamatsu begins to understand what Haizaki has planned.

“Brother,” Kise says, speaking for the first time, his lips brushing against Kasamatsu’s ear. “Captain. Yukio. You should have never brought me into your home. I have caused you nothing but pain.”

Kasamatsu lifts his arms to encircle Kise, to pat him on the back of his head as he cries. He wishes he could say, It’s not your fault, but he knows that wouldn’t provide much consolation. Kise would never accept that.

What he would say, if he were able, is, _You’re worth it._

So perhaps it is best he cannot speak, for surely it would be too embarrassing to say that out loud.

*

“First I’ll make them love you,” Haizaki tells Kasamatsu, “And then I’ll make them wish you were dead.”

And that’s exactly what he does.

*

Early on, Haizaki figured out whatever enchantment Kasamatsu is conducting must do with his knitting. And from then on out, Kasamatsu does not try to run or rebel, because the shirts make too precious a cargo to risk if Haizaki knows their worth. All the former Beast would have to do is shoot one flaming arrow as Kasamatsu ran away and these past years would all be a waste.

So Kasamatsu lets Haizaki parade him about the village, introducing him as his new eudemon bride. He lets Haizaki wrap a possessive arm around him while he does so, and he lets the villagers believe he is their new royal consort.

He is not, however, ever going to be Haizaki’s, and he makes that clear without words.

“Don’t worry,” the king laughs. “I won’t touch you unless you want it, but that it is your loss. I have a different purpose for you.”

And Kasamatsu knows he’s in danger, but he doesn’t have a lot of options. Haizaki actually sends out his men to search for star nettles to bring back to him, which he bestows with a mocking smirk. Kasamatsu has a (relatively) safe place and a lot of peace and quiet to finish his knitting, so there isn’t much room for complaint.

When his brothers visit him, which is not always possible, they tell him to run, but Kasamatsu just shakes his head. Kise swears and cries and begs—and Kasamtasu is genuinely afraid that he’ll do something reckless like try to kill Haizaki in the fifteen minutes he has his humanity. Kasamatsu has to grip his arm and shake his head _no_ but he’s not sure Kise will obey.

“You are in incredible danger,” Moriyama says.

Kasamatsu nods his head.

He knows.

But he’s almost done with his shirts. He’s working on the last one now. All he has to do is stall for time.

*

He wakes up one morning with blood smeared on his lips. It is the sound of shrieking that wakes him.

There is a maid in his room, and the dead body of a child on his floor.

“The consort has murdered a child!” the maid yells.

Kasamatsu jolts at the sight of Haizaki, who is suddenly there. Haizaki has one brief smirk before he says, “Oh no, my consort would never do such a thing. There must be some misunderstanding.”

*

This happens three more times over the course of a month.

Kasamatsu wakes up with blood smeared on his mouth. Haizaki swears up and down his consort would never do such a thing. But the king’s advisors and the villagers are all starting to look at Kasamatsu with fear in their eyes.

At one point, Kasamatsu grabs Haizaki by the neck because people are dying. It is killing Kasamatsu that he can’t stop this from happening.

“Ah ah,” the king says. “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to those precious shirts of yours, would you?”

Kasamatsu’s grip tightens and then he lets go. He presses a hand to his heart, trying to convey, _Hurt me if you must. Stop hurting others._

“That, dear consort, was always the intention,” Haizaki says.

*

That night, Haizaki announces to the kingdom that Kasamatsu will be executed in the morning.

*

It is a moonless night.

Not that it matters, because there are no windows in Kasamatsu’s prison cell. His brothers could not have come to him anyhow, not even in their swan forms.

But, he regrets that there is no moon tonight. Because it means his brothers will not be able to transform back to human, not even for fifteen minutes. They are out there, somewhere, stuck as swans.

They will always be stuck as swans. Forever and ever. Kasamatsu can do nothing for them now.

*

Haizaki took his shirts.

“I am not sure what these were for, dear consort,” Haizaki said, “But they are full of magic now, and it will all be the better for burning.”

Kasamatsu had fought then—the first time he showed any kind of resistance. But the guards brought him down and now he is in his cell, without his shirts.

So close, Kasamatsu thinks. He had been on the very last shirt. He was almost done with the very last shirt. He had been so close and that’s what makes this all so heartbreaking.

(But then, that’s why Haizaki had struck now. He wanted Kasamatsu to be near finished with his enchantment. He must have seen the six swans flying in and out of Kasamatsu’s room, he must have drawn his own conclusions.)

Kasamatsu is beaten and broken in body and spirit. It is his last night on earth, he has not saved his brothers, and still he will not let himself cry, for fear of letting a sound escape.

(He knows there is no hope. But still he will not speak. Still he hopes anyway).

He wishes he could see the moon one last time.

He wishes he could see Kise one last time.

*

“I owe you a very deep apology, Kasamatsu-san. I did not mean for any of this to happen.”

Kasamatsu jolts—the voice itself is not so surprising as its tone. He expected Haizaki to come visit him and gloat, or some other jeering villager, now convinced of his guilt. Instead, the voice is quiet, polite, and full of regret.

There is a Beast standing just outside his cell, and another Beast is the very last person Kasamatsu would have expected to see right now. He has pale blue hair and eyes and he looks at Kasamatsu with a deep sadness.

Kasamatsu tilts his head, asking without speaking, _Do we know each other?_

The pale blue Beast shakes his head. “But I am the cause of your present suffering. I am the one who cursed Kise-kun and inadvertently, the rest of your Clan.”

This revelation brings Kasamatsu to his feet, as he surges towards the bars. He’s not sure why, exactly, he can’t strike out against the man. Perhaps he wants to beg for his mercy—get him to end his curse once and for all.

“I cannot,” the Beast says, as if reading Kasamatsu’s mind. “I do not have that power. The curse that struck Kise-kun was not meant to involve others. I did not realize he had bonded with a new clan. I would never have placed the curse if I knew—” the Beast stops talking. When he continues again he has changed topics.

“Haizaki-kun, in a way, is also my fault. Demons are created at the brink of death—and they can revert back to human the same way. Haizaki-kun never wished to return to human form. While it is easy enough to transform to a Beast, it is not so easy to do it a second time after having already lost it once. He believes that he could harness the power of your death to achieve his aims.”

Kasamatsu finds that he doesn’t care about the reasons behind his own impending death, so much as he still wishes for answers behind why Kise and his clan were cursed. If they could be saved—if they could be saved, it does not matter if Kasamatsu survives.

“The curse is such that even I cannot undo it,” the pale blue Beast says, still following Kasamatsu’s unspoken pleas. “Only you can, Kasamatsu-san. And I sincerely hope that you succeed.”

And then the pale blue Beast takes something from his cloak and places it through the bars. Kasamatsu looks down to see that he is now holding his parcel—his bag with all his precious shirts—and when he looks back up again the Beast is gone.

With shaking hands he pulls out his final shirt. He doesn’t have enough star nettles to finish it, but.

He is going to try anyway.

*

Kasamatsu is still clutching his parcel when they guards bring him to the pyre.

“You could end this,” Haizaki says conversationally, so that only Kasamatsu can hear. “You could speak and protest your innocence. Is the spell you are working on really worth your life?”

Kasamatsu glares at him, and he hopes it conveys everything he wants to:

_Yes, a thousand times yes, it is worth dying for._

_You miserable wretch of a failure._

Haizaki laughs, like he hears everything Kasamatsu still doesn’t say.

*

They’re in the process of chaining him to the stake when he sees the swans.

He’s not the only one—the villagers who have gathered to watch him burn see them first, murmuring to each other and then speaking louder as their distress grows.

“I have never seen swans fly like that.”

“They’re so close—”

“It’s unnatural, it must be a sign—”

“They look like angels.”

“Maybe the royal consort is innocent.”

It is bad luck to kill a swan, and that must be what Haizaki is thinking when he sees the swans surrounding Kasamatsu. The guards are clearly nervous by this new appearance, and Kasamatsu sees Haizaki’s finger twitching at his bow, as he restrains himself from shooting the birds.

White feathers brush against Kasamatsu’s face—and it’s Kise, he knows it is Kise, he would recognize Kise anywhere. Kasamatsu looks into the eyes of someone he’s come to long for like air and it’s like time freezes around them.

Then Haizaki throws a torch at Kasamatsu’s feet, lighting the bonfire around him.

*

It all happens very quickly after that—Kasamatsu is barely aware of the fire and the smoke, all he can see are the swans, now launching themselves at Haizaki.

The guards—who were first confused by the swans and then were not expecting to be so close to the fire—have leapt back, loosening their hold on Kasamatsu’s shackles. They had never fully finished chaining Kasamatsu to the stake, so he pulls himself free. The fire and smoke that begin to surround him is not so important as the sight of Haizaki with a sword, and the vulnerable form of his brothers, and—

“Kise!”

The shirts are out of his hands before he realizes what’s happening—he has flung them but Haizaki’s weapon is too close to Kise and the name escapes his lips before he knows what is happening, and his heart has never beat so fast and time feels so slow and he doesn’t know if it’s enough, if there’s time, if this will be a tragedy after all—

*

One by one, the swans begin transforming into men.

It is daylight, Kasamatsu has not seen his brothers in daylight, not for so many years.

He collapses to the ground, just barely missing the fire, suddenly feeling like he’s too weak to move.

*

“Captain,” “Brother,” “Kasamatsu.”

His brothers have incapacitated Haizaki, and now they are surrounding him, and it seems all too much to process, Kasamatsu is still not sure if everyone is safe.

Then he sees Kise, and his throat catches.

Perhaps he failed after all.

*

“Captain,” Kise says gently, approaching him for the first time as the rest of their clan makes space for him. “Don’t look like that.”

“I’m—I’m sorry,” Kasamatsu says, and his voice is a stranger to his own ears. It still feels wrong to speak out loud. “I didn’t have time—”

Kise pulls him up from the ground, and with one arm wrapped around Kasamatsu’s waist he says, “Don’t ever apologize to me. No one could have done more than you. This was my fault, my folly, my shame, and you should not have suffered because of it. Captain, I—Kasamatsu, beloved—”

Kise kisses him then, and Kasamatsu can hear their clan cheering around them, and a fair amount of the villagers, who do not know what is going on but seem rather supportive of love and magic.

“He looks like an angel,” a small child says, “Or a prince. Or a princely angel.”

When Kasamatsu pulls back he thinks—yes, Kise does look like an angel and a prince. The one white wing where his left arm should be (the one sleeve that Kasamatsu could not finish) does not diminish him or make him monstrous.

“I like the wing,” Kise says, clearing his throat, and Kasamatsu wonders if maybe he’s just saying that to comfort Kasamatsu in his failure.

But then Kise lifts his wing up to shield them both from onlookers, and he kisses Kasamatsu again, and Kasamatsu thinks that he could get used to this.

“Let’s go home, Captain,” Kise says, when they break apart again.

“Yes,” Kasamatsu says, longing for the home they can rebuild together. “Yes, let’s all go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> DVD commentary is [here](https://umisabaku.tumblr.com/post/166803695179/dvd-commentary-for-swan-in-the-curse) on my tumblr. Thank you so much for reading!! Kudos and comments are always appreciated =D


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